UK house price rises slow in June

REUTERS , LONDON

Monthly house price rises in England and Wales slowed marginally this month, nonetheless took the annual rise in prices to the largest since January 2008, property data company Hometrack said yesterday.

The number of houses being put up for sale rose at a faster rate than the number of buyers, potentially limiting future price rises.

However, recent legislative changes that have reduced up-front marketing costs for sellers mean more of the new homes coming on to market may be from less committed vendors only willing to move if they get an unrealistically high price, Hometrack said.

“While the proportion of the country registering higher prices continues to shrink — 11 percent in June, down from 25 percent in February — very low transaction volumes are exacerbating the scarcity of housing for sale and this is acting as a support to prices,” Hometrack’s director of research, Richard Donnell said.

“A lack of forced sellers is likely to limit the scale of any declines,” he said.

Hometrack’s survey of estate agents and surveyors showed an average rise of 0.1 percent in house prices this month, down from 0.2 percent in May, and a year-on-year rise of 2.1 percent.

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